Kevin Christian's Blog

Puzzle Solution

kevin3c — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 15:23:21 +0000

Whom did Allan Love?
Given:
1). John loved girl-1 who loved Jim.
2). Allan loved girl-2 who loved Bill.
3). Rose loved gentleman-1 who loved Mary.
4). Gloria loved gentleman-2 who loved Rose.
5). Gloria did not like Jim and John.
6). Bill did not like Mary.Reasoning:
7). Item 3 and 4 can be conbined into 1 chain.
8). Gloria can not be the girl-1 because 1 and 5.
9). Since Bill does not like Mary, Bill can not be gentleman 1.
10). Bill can not love Gloria, because that will end up combining item 2 and 7. The resulting chain will have 5 girls. It meant Bill was gentleman 2 and loved Rose.
11). It also implied that girl-2 was Gloria.
12). According to item 2, the answer was Allan loved Gloria.

Triplet Brothers

Left: Joe
Right: John
Middle: Jack

McCain wins Conn., N.J., Ill. primaries

kevin3c — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 01:52:31 +0000

WASHINGTON – Sen. John McCain won primaries in Connecticut, New Jersey and Illinois Tuesday night, reaching for command of the race for the Republican presidential nomination. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama swapped victories as they waged a coast-coast struggle for delegates in the grueling Democratic campaign.

Obama, hoping to become the first black president, won in Georgia and his home state of Illinois. Clinton, seeking to become the first female president, countered in Oklahoma, Tennessee and then in Arkansas, where she was first lady for more than a decade.

After an early series of low-delegate, single-state contests, Super Tuesday was anything but small � its primaries and caucuses were spread across nearly half the country in the most wide-open presidential campaign in memory.

The result was a double-barreled set of races, Obama and Clinton fighting for delegates as well as bragging rights in individual states, Republicans McCain, Romney and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee doing likewise.

Romney, the former governor of Massachusetts, won a home state victory.

Huckabee won in his home state, too, and also at the West Virginia convention. McCain’s forces helped him collect all 18 delegates there, maneuvering successfully to deny Romney the prize.

Polling place interviews with voters across 16 states suggested subtle shifts in the political landscape.

McCain held a small edge among voters calling themselves Republicans, a group he had not won in any of the earlier primaries or caucuses. As usual, he was running strongly among independents. Romney was getting the votes of about four in 10 people who described themselves as conservative. McCain was wining about one-third of that group, and Huckabee about one in five.

Overall, Clinton was winning only a slight edge among women and white voters, both groups that she had won handily in earlier contests, according to preliminary results from interviews with voters in 16 states leaving polling places. Obama was collecting the overwhelming majority of votes cast by blacks.

Clinton was gaining the votes of roughly six in 10 Hispanics, and hoped the edge would serve her well as the race turned west to Arizona, New Mexico and California, the biggest prize with 370 delegates.

Georgia was Obama’s second straight Southern triumph, and like an earlier win in South Carolina it was powered by black votes.

African-Americans accounted for slightly more than half the ballots cast in Georgia, and he was gaining about 90 percent of them. Clinton won nearly 60 percent of the white votes, a reduced advantage compared to her showing in earlier states.

Democrats awarded their delegates in rough proportion to the popular vote.

Not so Republicans, who held several winner-take-all contests.

New Jersey and Connecticut were among them, and they gave McCain 79 delegates in the two combined � leaving his rivals with nothing to show for their efforts there.

Democrats and Republicans alike said the economy was their most important issue. Democrats said the war in Iraq ranked second and health care third. Republican primary voters said immigration was second most important after the economy, followed by the war in Iraq.

The survey was conducted in 16 states by Edison Media Research and Mitofsky International for The Associated Press and television networks.

McCain was the Republican front-runner, all but unchallenged in winner-take-all primaries in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut. He looked for a home-state win in Arizona, as well.

Democrats Obama and Clinton conceded in advance that neither was likely to emerge from the busiest day in primary history with anything more than a relatively narrow edge in convention delegates.

“Senator Clinton, I think, has to be the prohibitive favorite going in given her name recognition, but we’ve been steadily chipping away,” said Obama, seeking to downplay expectations.

As she voted in Chappaqua, N.Y., Clinton said, “The stakes are huge.”

Her aides conceded in advance that Obama might win more Super Tuesday delegates than the former first lady.

Already, both campaigns were looking ahead to Feb. 9 contests in Louisiana, Nebraska and Washington state and Feb. 12 primaries in Maryland, Virginia and the District of Columbia. And increasingly, it looked like the Democrats’ historic race between a woman and a black man would go into early spring, possibly longer.

Democrats had 1,681 Super Tuesday delegates to allocate in primaries in 15 states and caucuses in seven more plus American Samoa.

Clinton led Obama in the delegate chase as the polls opened, 261 to 202, on the strength of so-called superdelegates. They are members of Congress and other party leaders, not chosen by primary voters or caucus-goers. It takes 2,025 delegates to win the Democratic nomination.

Republicans had 1,023 delegates at stake in 15 primaries, six caucuses and one state convention.

The evening began with McCain holding 102 delegates, to 93 for Romney, 43 for Huckabee and four for Paul. It takes 1,191 to win the Republican nomination.

The de facto national primary was the culmination of a relentless campaign that moved into overdrive during Christmas week.

After a brief rest for the holiday, the candidates flew back to Iowa on Dec. 26 for a final stretch of campaigning before the state’s caucuses offered the first test of the election year. New Hampshire‘s traditional first-in-the-nation primary followed a few days later, then a seemingly endless series of campaign days interspersed by debates and a handful of primaries and caucuses.

Along the way, the poorest performers dropped out: Democratic Sens. Joe Biden and Chris Dodd, New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson and Rep. Dennis Kucinich of Ohio; and Republican Reps. Duncan Hunter and Tom Tancredo, and former Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson.

Former Sen. John Edwards pulled out of the Democratic race last week, and former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani left the Republican field.

Edwards offered no endorsement as he exited, instead leaving Obama and Clinton to vie for help from his fundraisers and supporters.

But Obama benefited from an endorsement by Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, who made a series of campaign appearances in California as well as his home state of Massachusetts.

Giuliani quit the race and backed McCain in the same breath, clearing the way for the Westerner in New York and New Jersey.

Giuliani’s departure also made it possible for California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to back McCain. Schwarzenegger said he would not have done so as long as the former mayor was in the race.

Obama and Clinton spent an estimated $20 million combined to advertise on television in the Feb 5 states.

Obama spent $11 million, running ads in 18 of the 22 states with Democratic contests. Clinton ran ads in 17, for a total of $9 million.

Neither advertised in Illinois, Obama’s home state.

Whom did Allan Love???

kevin3c — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 13:10:01 +0000

When the Titanic sank in the ocean, four gentlemen and four young ladies floated on to an island. After a while, all of them fell in love with each other. Each person loved one and only one.The girl that John loved fell in love with Jim. The girl that Allan loved fell in love with Bill. The gentleman that Rose loved fell in love with Mary. Gloria loved the gentleman who loved rose. Gloria did not like Jim and John. Bill did not like Mary. Jill did not like the gentleman who loved her.

The question is: Whom did Allan love?

Triplet Brothers

kevin3c — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 13:01:47 +0000


There are 3 triplet brothers. They look identical. The oldest is John, he always tells the truth. The second is Jack, he always tells a lie. The third is Joe, he either tells the truth or a lie.Jimmie Dean went to visit them one day. He was wondering who was who. So he asked each person a question.He asked the one who was sitting on the left: “Who is the guy sitting in the middle?”. The answer was “He is John.” He asked the one who was sitting in the middle: “What is your name?”. The answer was “I am Joe.” He asked the one who was sitting on the right: “What is the guy sitting in the middle?”. The answer was “He is Jack.”Jimmie Dean got really confused. Basically, he asked 3 same questions, but he got 3 different answers. Would you find out who is who for Jimmie?

$3 trillion Bush budget already attacked

kevin3c — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 12:46:03 +0000

WASHINGTON – President Bush is sending Congress a $3 trillion spending blueprint that would provide a big boost to defense and protect his signature tax cuts.

It seeks sizable savings in government health care programs and puts the squeeze on much of the rest of government, but it would still generate near-record budget deficits over the next two years.

Even before receiving the document Monday, Democrats were attacking it for slashing programs to help the poor while protecting tax cuts for the wealthy.

“This is a budget that sticks it to the middle class, comforts the wealthy and has a set of priorities that are not the priorities of the American people,” said Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad, D-N.D.

Democrats saw the plan as a continuation of failed policies that have seen the national debt explode under Bush. A projected 10-year surplus of $5.6 trillion when Bush took office was wiped out by the 2001 recession, the increased spending to fight terrorism and, Democrats contend, Bush’s costly tax cuts.

Bush’s spending blueprint sets the stage for what will probably be epic battles in the president’s last year in office, as both parties seek to gain advantages with voters heading into the November elections.

Bush, who was the first president to propose a $2 trillion budget, back in 2002, will leave office as the first president to hit $3 trillion with a spending plan.

His blueprint for the budget year that begins next October projects huge deficits, around $400 billion for this year and next, more than double the 2007 deficit of $163 billion. Private economists believe the deficit could easily surpass the previous record in dollar terms of $413 billion set in 2004, especially if the country does go into a recession.

The sharp jump in the deficits reflects, in part, a proposed economic stimulus plan of around $145 billion. Bush is urging Congress to pass it quickly as a way of getting tax rebates to households this summer in hopes of preventing a full-blown recession.

As in past years, Bush’s biggest proposed increases are in national security. Defense spending is projected to rise by about 7 percent, to $515 billion, and homeland security money by almost 11 percent, with a big gain for border security. Details on the budget were obtained through interviews with administration officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity until the budget’s release.

The bulk of government programs for which Congress sets annual spending levels would remain essentially frozen at current levels. The president does shower extra money on some favored programs in education and to bolster inspections of imported food, following last year’s high-profile recalls of tainted products coming from China.

Bush’s spending proposal would achieve sizable savings by slowing the growth in the major health programs — Medicare for retirees and Medicaid for the poor. There the president will be asking for almost $200 billion in cuts over five years, about three times the savings he proposed last year. The savings would come from freezing payments for hospitals and other health care providers.

Congress rejected last year’s effort and Democrats are predicting Bush’s new proposal will meet the same fate.

Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and other so-called entitlement programs — where the government is obligated to pay benefits to all who are eligible — now account for half of the total budget, with the costs expected to continue rising rapidly in coming years as 78 million baby boomers reach retirement.

Bush had hoped to make overhaul of Social Security a top goal of his second term but his plan to introduce individual investment accounts went nowhere.

Bush’s five-year blueprint makes his first-term tax cuts permanent while still claiming to get the budget into balance by 2012, three years after he leaves office. While Republicans are pledging to protect the tax cuts, Democrats, including the party’s presidential candidates, want to roll back the tax relief provided the wealthy.

Democrats say Bush’s budget is built on flawed math. Beyond 2009, the budget plan does not include any money to keep the alternative minimum tax, which was aimed at the wealthy, from ensnaring millions of middle-income people. It also includes only $70 billion to fight the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan in 2009, just a fraction of the $200 billion those wars are expected to cost this year.

Bush proposes boosting spending to hire more diplomats at the State Department and in some areas of education such as Title I grants, the main source of federal support for poor students.

But at the same time, Bush seeks to eliminate 47 other education programs that are seen as unnecessary, part of 151 programs Bush is targeting to either eliminate or sharply scale back. A similar effort last year met with little success

Hello world!

kevin3c — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 09:49:44 +0000

Hello World! This is my blog. My name is Kevin Christian. I hope this blog will make the readers happy!!